Gone

Panda was leaning out of the window.
    “Panda? Man, am I glad to see you. We’ve been—”
    Something dark and swift leaped and caught Panda’s arm. He let out a shriek.
    From inside the car, a dog barked frantically.
    Something hit Howard in the back and he hit the pavement on his hands and knees.
    The car lurched forward. The bumper stopped six inches from Howard’s head.
    There came a scream, a male voice. Orc. Orc back in the darkness somewhere.
    There were dogs everywhere, swarming around Howard. No, not dogs, he thought, wolves. Coyotes.
    The car door opened, and Panda fell out, wrapped half around a coyote.
    A loud bang and a stab of orange light.
    But the coyotes didn’t stop.
    Another shot, and one of the coyotes yelped in pain. Drake staggered into view, looking like a scarecrow in the headlights.
    The coyotes retreated, out of the light but by no means gone. Howard got slowly to his feet.
    Drake pointed the gun at Howard’s face. “Did you set these dogs on me?”
    “They chewed on me too, man,” Howard protested. Then he yelled out at the desert, “Orc. Orc, man. Orc.”
    A voice like wet gravel, but with an eerie high-pitched tone, said, “Give us female.”
    Howard peered into the night trying to make sense of it. It wasn’t Orc. Where was Orc?
    “What female?” Drake demanded. “Who are you?”
    Slowly, on every side, all around the car the desert moved. Shadows crept closer. Howard shrank back, but Drake stood firm.
    “Who’s out there?” Drake demanded.
    A mange-eaten coyote with a scarred muzzle that gave him a sinister grin stepped into the circle of light. Howard almost fell down when he realized it was this coyote who spoke.
    “Give us female.”
    “No,” Drake said, recovering quickly from the shock. “She’s mine. I need her to heal my arm. She has the power and I want my arm back.”
    “You are nothing,” the coyote snarled.
    “I’m the kid with the gun,” Drake said.
    The two of them, two of a kind, it seemed to Howard, stared holes in each other.
    “What do you want with her?” Drake demanded.
    “Darkness say: bring female.”
    “Darkness? What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Give us female,” Pack Leader said, returning to his single-minded point. “Or we kill all.”
    “I’ll kill plenty of you.”
    “You die,” Pack Leader said stubbornly.
    Howard felt it was time to speak up. “Guys. Guys. We have a standoff here. So why don’t we see if we can figure out an arrangement?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Okay, look, Drake, you said something about the female healing your arm?”
    “She has the power. I want my arm back.”
    “And Mr., um…coyote…you’re supposed to take her to some other dog called Darkness?”
    Pack Leader eyed Howard in a way that suggested he was considering how to butcher and eat him.
    “Okay,” Howard said shakily. “I think we can work a deal.”

THIRTY-EIGHT
    74 HOURS , 10 MINUTES
    “ASTRID,” EDILIO SAID. “I’m so sorry about your house.”
    Astrid squeezed Edilio’s hand. “Yeah. I have to admit, it was hard for me to see.”
    “You could stay over at the firehouse with me and Sam and Quinn,” Edilio offered.
    “It’s okay. Petey and I are going to room with Mother Mary and Brother John for a while. They’re hardly ever home. And when they are, well, you know, it’s good to have people around.”
    The three of them, Edilio, Astrid, and Little Pete, were in the office that had once belonged to the mayor of Perdido Beach and most recently had been occupied by Caine Soren. Sam had resisted the idea of taking the office, feeling it made him seem self-important. But Astrid had argued that symbols were important and kids wanted to think that someone was in charge.
    She settled Little Pete into a chair and handed him a Baggie full of Rice Chex. Little Pete liked to eat them plain, no milk.
    “Where’s Sam?” Astrid asked. “And why are we here?”
    Edilio looked uncomfortable. “We have something to show you.”
    Sam opened the door. He did not smile at Astrid. He looked warily at Little Pete. He said hello, then, “Astrid, there’s something you need to see. And I’m thinking Little Pete shouldn’t see.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    Sam flopped into the chair last occupied by Caine. Astrid was struck by how alike the two boys looked superficially. And by how different a reaction she had to their similar features. Where Caine hid his arrogance and cruelty beneath a smooth, controlled